Mr Ernest Amoah Ampah, Programme Officer at the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Unit, Ghana Education Service (GES), has advocated effective strategies to reduce the risk factors that contribute to the poor health of adolescents.
He said health workers should relate well with the young ones to enable them to detect mental health and other diseases early and provide treatment to limit their severity.
Mr Ampah gave the advice at a three-day training workshop to strengthen the capacity of SHEP Coordinators and Adolescent Health Focal Persons to effectively deliver Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights education under the SHEP Programme.
It was organised in Tamale by the Youth Advocates Ghana, and formed part of the Youth for Health (Y4H) project to identify schools to set up Adolescent Health Clubs.
“About half of lifetime mental disorders begin before the age of 14, and 70 per cent by age 24,” he said.
Mental disorders in adolescents tended to persist into adulthood and had public health significance.
Mr Emmanuel Ametepey, the Executive Director of Youth Advocates Ghana, urged stakeholders to strengthen capacities on adolescents reproductive health systems in Ghana and target both boys and girls to ensure no one was left behind.
He gave the background of the Y4H project and said it was one of the European Commission’s flagship programmes to expand access to life-changing adolescent sexual and reproductive health care in rural and hard-to-reach areas in six countries in Africa implemented from 2022 to 2025.
It sought to increase demand for access to high-quality, discrimination-free Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, increase public sector willingness to deliver and sustain high-quality information and services on those rights, and improve enabling policy and funding environment at the regional, national, and sub-national levels on the project.
Mr Ametepey said in Ghana, the project was being implemented by Marie Stopes Ghana and Youth Advocates Ghana in the Northern and Upper East regions.
